Age-related decline in attentional shifting: Evidence from ERPs

•The N2 and P3a for target stimuli were increased in old adults.•The N2 and P3a for the stimulus following the target one were reduced in old adults.•Aging is associated with a decline in shifting attention.•These age-related changes might explain the increased attentional blink in elderly.

The present study investigated age-related attentional changes by comparing event-related potentials (ERPs) in young and older adults during a rapid serial visual presentation task. We focused on analyzing the P3a and the N2 in both the target stimulus and the immediately succeeding irrelevant stimulus. As compared with younger adults, older adults exhibited a marked reduction in the amplitude of the P3a and N2 elicited by the stimulus following the target stimulus. Moreover, in younger adults, the P3a and N2 amplitudes did not differ between both stimuli, whereas in older adults these ERP components were significantly reduced in the subsequent stimulus compared to the target one. The age-related attenuation of P3a and N2 amplitudes for the subsequent stimulus indicates that older adults take longer and have more difficulty shifting their attention from one stimulus to the next one.